Focus and Scope
The global economic turmoil has subjected European welfare states to a whole series of new challenges. On the one hand, rising unemployment has increased the number of people in need of social benefits. On the other hand, it has pushed some countries, such as Greece, Ireland or Portugal to drastically retrench their social protection systems inorder to restore sustainable state budgets. It has also provided a window of opportunity for political actors in other countries to carry out reforms that are highly unpopular in “normal” times. At the same time, ageing, globalisation, the transformation of employment and family structures or international migration still constitute strong pressures to “adjust” welfare states to a changing socio-economic environment. All these factors have made welfare state reform a central subject of political conflict between political parties, and between employers and trade unions.

The aim of the ECPR standing group on the politics of welfare is to coordinate and organise activities of scholars analysing changes of the welfare state from a political science perspective.

Activities
To serve the community of welfare scholars by:
– Disseminating via its website, and mailing list, information on relevant up-coming events.
– Sponsoring and coordinating section, panel and workshop proposals that members wish to submit for ECPR conferences.
– Supporting by appropriate means any other initiatives.